Buttered Rum
by Hippopotamus.9
Summary: Her dark colored hair was plastered to her face, and she took a moment to smooth it out.  And then she opened her eyes. Oh My God. I felt like I was the one drowning. She was so, so beautiful... This is the story of Embry finding a soul mate named Zuri.


**Note: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer, not me…except the character of Zuri. **

****This is the story of Embry finding an imprint in a loving, caring girl named Zuri. Hope everybody likes it! And please, please, PLEASE review this story and let me know what you think. If you like it, LET ME KNOW! If you hate it, you should definitely LET ME KNOW! Thank you :o)**

**Embry's POV:**

"Check it out," Paul pointed at a girl wearing a yellow dress. She was sitting on the edge of the dock, peering down at the water, looking like something had fallen in.

I snorted. "She looks like she's twelve." All afternoon, Paul, Quil and I had been girl-watching on Quil's dad's boat. Well, the only girl Quil had been watching was Claire, his imprint, who was running berserk because she had Quil's attention all to herself.

"And this one?" Claire asked, showing Quil her pinky finger.

"And this one went wee wee wee, all the way home!" Quil said, his fingers trailing up her arm and tickling her. She laughed delightedly, and so did Quil.

I almost gagged. Not that I didn't think Claire was cute or anything, just that every time Quil was with Claire, he acted like he was four years old too. Ever since he imprinted on her, he seemed to be in lala land or something.

Paul was still looking at the girl, a grin on his face. "Looks like she has some baggage," he mentioned. I followed his eyes. A light skinned guy appeared on the dock, holding two ice creams. He said something, but the girl didn't even move. Although we had extraordinary hearing since we phased, we were still too far away to hear their conversation. The guy held out the ice cream to her, but she didn't take it. He said something again. Then, without any warning, he pushed her into the water. She landed with a splash and went under.

_What the hell?_

Paul had the "what the hell" expression on his face too. He took hold of the steering wheel and guided it towards where the girl landed. She was still nowhere to be seen. _Oh god._ I knew what was going to happen next. Sometimes I really hated being a "protector" of the tribe.

Why do things like this always happen to me?

I stripped off my shirt and dove into the water, and I guess she was not actually drowning because she was close to the surface. So I grabbed her wrist (I think) and pulled her up with me. She coughed and spat into the water, and I realized that she couldn't have been twelve years old at all—the wet yellow fabric of her dress clung to her chest in a way that she couldn't have been twelve. Her dark colored hair was plastered to her face, and she took a moment to smooth it out. And then she opened her eyes.

_Holy Shit. _

I felt like I was drowning. _She was so, so beautiful. _She had sharp cheekbones, like glass, and large brown eyes. I stared at her. She was so beautiful. Her skin was olive colored and she had a splatter of freckles on her cheeks. I wanted to touch her face. I wanted to hold her face in my hands. My hands seemed to have power on their own, and I gritted my teeth to keep them from moving from my sides. She stared back at me, and I stared back at her. I was briefly aware of the sun on my back, and Quil and Paul hollering at me from the boat. Nothing could have made me look away, nothing had the _power_ to make me look away. I wanted to know her name. I wanted to know _her_. I wanted to tread water forever, staring at her face.

But then she spoke. "Are you ok?" She raised her eyebrows at me.

_Of course I'm ok_, I wanted to say. _I'm more than ok. _But I couldn't open my mouth. It felt like it was sealed shut, like when my mother used to let me lick the envelopes shut. I felt dizzy, I felt nervous, I felt like I was skydiving.

**PLEASE review. I would really, really appreciate it. As all of you writers out there know, a review to an aspiring writer is like a hot fudge sundae on a summer day. It is glorious. :o)**

**Hopefully the next chapter will be in Zuri's POV, and it will give some insight on her character and life. **


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